Dark Days meal

I set out at the beginning of last summer to make it to January using only vegetables from my garden (of the ones I grow, anyway).

Well, here it is, well into February, and it looks like I'm going to make it all the way to my first harvest in June, with some to spare. I've still got plenty of tomato sauce and frozen tomatoes, cucumber and eggplant, loads of pickles, several jars of corn relish, one more quart of blanched chard, roasted frozen green and jalapeno peppers. I have plenty of frozen vegetable peelings for making stock. Just used the last of the raspberries, making me eye my non-bearing apple tree with evil intent: wouldn't that space be better used as a a berry patch? Hmmmm.

So here's a "larder meal," made from my stores (plus some CSA onions). Oh, also? Go Team Eggplant.

Pumpkin-eggplant soup with carmelized onions
1 roasted medium-sized eggplant, peeled and cubed
3 roasted medium-sized tomatoes, or 3 tomatoes blanched and peeled
1 quart pumpkin puree (approximarly equivalent to a can)
1 quart vegetable stock

1 large onion
1-2 teaspoons molasses

seasoning:
1 teaspoon whole coriander
a few green peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Put the first four ingredients in a large pot and bring to a simmer. In the meantime, melt about 3 tablespoons of butter in a skillet, turn the heat down to low and add the onions. When they start losing their shape, add the molasses and slowly sautee until the onions are completely soft and shapeless. Grind the spices (in a spice grinder, coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle) and add to the soup. Add the onions, draining any leftover butter into the pot.

Cool with a little cream or half-and-half when serving.